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2953 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY Tuesday 21 June 2011 __________ The Speaker (Mrs Shelley Elizabeth Hancock) took the chair at 10.00 a.m. The Speaker read the Prayer and acknowledgement of country. LOCAL GOVERNMENT AMENDMENT (ELECTIONS) BILL 2011 Message received from the Legislative Council returning the bill without amendment. DESTINATION NSW BILL 2011 Agreement in Principle Debate resumed from 17 June 2011. Mr PAUL LYNCH (Liverpool) [10.00 a.m.]: I lead for the Opposition in debate on the Destination NSW Bill 2011, which is not opposed by the Opposition. The object of the bill, which was provided to the Opposition on Friday last, is to establish Destination NSW as a government agency having functions in relation to the development of tourism and the procuring of major events. The main purpose of the bill is effectively a bureaucratic one, to merge the two public agencies of Tourism NSW and Events NSW to form Destination NSW, which will have two separate divisions. The agency will also, as we understand it, be accompanied by a Visitor Economy Taskforce, which, the Government says, will be charged with developing a strategy to double tourism expenditure in New South Wales by 2020. The agency will comprise a director general of Destination NSW and three industry representatives. In addition, Destination NSW will also, as we understand it, take on the role previously assigned to the greater Sydney partnership for the marketing brand "Sydney". The functions of Destination NSW are set out in clause 13 of the bill and include marketing and promoting New South Wales as a tourist destination and as a destination for the hosting of major events; to promote travel to and within New South Wales; to promote major events; to identify, attract and procure major events for New South Wales; to develop tourism ventures; to implement strategic plans, as approved by the Minister from to time; to prepare at least three months before the beginning of each financial year of Destination NSW a corporate and business plan for approval by the Minister; to prepare, on such occasions as the board requires, an operation plan for approval by the board; to construct, establish, maintain and operate tourist facilities; to establish, maintain and conduct enterprises relating to tourism; to provide travel and information services relating to tourism; to market travel and related services; and to carry out, or arrange for the carrying out of, research in relation to tourism and major events. I would appreciate a response from the Minister in due course about a number of matters. If the Government is effectively merging agencies will that lead to any job losses? What will be the employment consequences arising from this bill? There seems to have been one job loss already as, according to weekend newspapers, Mr Parmenter has resigned from Events NSW. Beyond that position, what is likely to happen to employees of the organisation? I ask the Minister how this will affect the Government's commitment to allegedly reduce advertising. It seems to me that, if the Government is to be taken seriously and applying the normal meanings of words in the English language, the significant number of functions of the body referred to in clause 13 must lead to increased advertising. That seems to be contrary to some of the objectives and claims that have been made by the Government. I would appreciate it if the Minister could clarify that. As we got the bill only last Friday, the forensic analysis that one would like to apply to a document such as this has not been possible in such a short time. I am also interested to know whether any other consequential amendments to other legislation will be made as a result of this bill. It seems to me there might need to be some that have not been referred to in the bill, and clarification from the Minister in that regard would be of assistance also. I note that Destination NSW will get a property acquisition power under clause 16, and that is probably not unreasonable. However, one's attention is always drawn when new government bodies are set up with powers to acquire property. 2954 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 21 June 2011 Has the Government given any thought to precisely what sort of property it is looking at acquiring? What are the parameters for that? Another mater about which the Opposition would like some clarification is what Destination NSW means for regional New South Wales. Much of the rhetoric around the legislation seems to be Sydney-centric, almost Sydney central business district-centric. Where does it fit in with rural and regional New South Wales, which includes Wollongong and Newcastle? That information would be of use to the Opposition. Visitors to New South Wales inject more than $28.2 billion a year into the New South Wales economy, directly supporting 162,500 jobs—which is nearly 5 per cent of all jobs in New South Wales. New South Wales attracts more tourists than any other Australian State or Territory, with approximately 36.3 per cent of all international and domestic overnight visitors coming to New South Wales in the year ending September 2010. Of our domestic visitors for that period, New South Wales attracted 23.4 million overnight visitors, who spent more than $12.5 billion during their stay. In that period New South Wales retained its lead on the international front with the number of international visitors to New South Wales increasing by 6.6 per cent in the September 2010 quarter, which is above the national average increase in visitors of 5.6 per cent. Visitor nights were also up by 8.8 per cent in that quarter. There has been a long history of attempts to support tourism. In November 2008 the former Government showed its commitment to the tourism industry with an investment of an additional $40 million over three and a half years on top of Tourism NSW's recurrent budget to implement a new tourism strategy for New South Wales. In the first year of that strategy's implementation quite a significant amount was achieved. The target for tourism in the State Plan was reset, and became 160.6 million visitor nights by 2015-16, which would see $19.2 billion in visitor spending. Two new tourism campaigns were launched for Sydney and regional New South Wales worth approximation $22 million a year. The new campaigns were launched domestically and in New Zealand, China, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The role of the Tourism NSW board was strengthened by creating three new industry reference groups: Sydney, regional and international. New ministerial taskforces were established to address tourism issues relating to education, planning and investment, local government and national parks. The Tourism and National Parks Taskforce was established to report on ways to promote and protect the State's natural and cultural heritage values while allowing appropriate use of national parks and reserves. One of the important recommendations of that taskforce was realised with the passing of the National Parks and Wildlife Amendment (Visitors and Tourists) Bill 2010. The Tourism Planning and Investment Taskforce was established to give advice on ways to increase tourism-friendliness in the planning system and to attract tourism investment. The Tourism and Education Taskforce was established to identify supply and demand strategic issues to inform the New South Wales Tourism Industry Plan and to develop an Education Tourism Plan for New South Wales. The ministerial Tourism and Local Government Taskforce was established to develop recommendations to encourage local councils to improve and better integrate local government planning for tourism into their overall planning processes. A significant amount of work has been done in recent years to support tourism. Certainly a number of the matters I have referred to, and other initiatives, were based on the O'Neill report, which was developed in 2008. Certainly that has direct relevance to this bill and to this proposal. If we are talking about what came out of the O'Neill report, it is perhaps important to get the whole picture and not just a part of it. As I indicated at the outset, the Opposition does not oppose the bill. Mr ANDREW GEE (Orange) [10.12 a.m.]: I support the Destination NSW Bill 2011. As Minister Souris has previously stated, the bill establishes a statutory body, Destination NSW, to market and promote New South Wales, undertake event acquisition and implement strategies to double tourism expenditure by 2020. Whilst New South Wales enjoys a strong reputation for the high-quality tourism that visitors can experience in this State, the bill recognises that we can do more to promote regional and rural New South Wales as a destination of first choice for visitors from Australia and overseas so that tourism in our regions reaches its full potential. The tourism and events industries generate billions of dollars a year and support and create tens of thousands of jobs in communities throughout regional and rural areas. In fact, in many country and coastal towns tourism is the lifeblood of their economies. The New South Wales Government is committed to helping hardworking regional and rural tourism operators and event organisers attract more visitors and make a significant contribution to building up local economies throughout New South Wales. This is vitally important in the Central West, where our growing tourism industry needs the valuable support that this bill provides. 21 June 2011 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 2955 How does this bill support tourism in New South Wales, including in the Central West? The creation of Destination NSW unifies tourism bodies in New South Wales and gives them a single voice and stronger focus.